Virtual reality may help treat patients with paranoia

Virtual reality-based interventions have shown effectiveness in improving symptoms of paranoia in patients, according to a study published in Psychiatry Research.

“Despite the complexity of psychosis, promising results have been achieved for distinct aspects of this clinical condition,” Elham Monaghesh, of the department of health information technology at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and colleagues wrote.

“The [virtual reality] (VR) provides valuable facts giving a better understanding of paranoia conditions while providing an endurable situation for patients,” they continued. “The VR helps patients with paranoia to learn how to deal with the symptoms when occurring in a social situation and how to continue an activity. Although patients know this is a simulation, their learning is transferred to the real world.

The researchers said they sought to review and evaluate the efficacy of VR-assisted therapies for paranoia and identify their key features.

Within the systematic review, researchers included studies published up until November 2021 that reported VR-based interventions for treating patients with paranoia. The studies were sourced from five databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO and Scopus.

Monaghesh and colleagues included eight studies in the review, six of which were randomized clinical trials with VR-based interventions, in the experimental group as compared to routine interventions in the control group. Two were before-after studies. Interventions ranged from one to 16 sessions with follow-up durations of 0 to 6 months. Head-mounted display and Unity 3D were the most commonly used hardware and software, respectively.

The researchers found that all studies included within the review showed positive results in the main objective, such as improved social participation, reduced level of anxiety, and diminished suspicious ideas and paranoid symptoms.

“Although the use of VR technology is limited for a variety of reasons, including cost, this type of intervention is more attractive than conventional interventions,” Monaghesh and colleagues concluded. “The VR-based interventions improve symptoms in patients with paranoia, increase the social participation of patients, as well as reduce stress and suspiciousness. Moreover, [they provide] better control of treatment sessions for therapists. With the advent of cost-effective, user-friendly and supported VR systems, more research can be performed on VR based on preliminary studies to develop new applications for VR in psychotherapy.”